Faith Williams of Elyria Catholic tries to push her way through defense from Lutheran West’s Abriana Rondin, right, and Raiyah Johnson on March 3.
Jen Forbus — The Morning Journal

“Airball. Airball. Airball.”

The chants from the Newton Falls student section still echoed off the walls of the Cuyahoga Falls High School gym after Elyria Catholic’s Faith Williams misfired on a 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter of a Division III regional semifinal on March 7.

But that taunt only provided a spark that would haunt Newton Falls later in the game.

Actually, 16 minutes later to be exact.

The teams were locked in a heated war that lasted three overtimes. The key to Elyria Catholic’s second-half spark was a 3-pointer Williams sank at the third-quarter buzzer — after missing five straight — to head to the fourth with 29-28 lead.

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It was Elyria Catholic’s first lead since a 15-14 advantage in the second quarter.

“The airball I had was at the buzzer. It wasn’t like I just shot it. So I was like, ‘OK, we just have to shush them up a little bit,’” Williams said with a laugh. “That was big right there (at the end of the third) because I think that switched up the momentum a bit and that got us really hyped up for the fourth quarter.”

Every time Williams touched the ball, the chant came back.

But that didn’t stop Williams from knocking down four triples in the game and finishing with 15 points.

And with each shot from downtown she hit, the atmosphere of the game kicked up a notch.

In fact, not just with each shot Williams hit, but with any shot that was scored.

Because with a game as close as this one, everyone knew that each basket could seal the win.

Elyria Catholic came away with the 55-54 win, as senior Megan Scheibelhut’s basket with 17 seconds left sent the Panthers to a regional final against unbeaten Doylestown Chippewa at 1:30 p.m. March 10 in the same Cuyahoga Falls gym.

Amid a great atmosphere in an even greater regional semifinal, the walls of that gym shook with each possession for almost all of the fourth quarter and the three overtimes.

Elyria Catholic coach Eric Rothgery took in all the noise as the volume amplified and watched as it amplified the play of his team down the stretch.

“It seemed really loud didn’t it? You couldn’t hear anything in here and this is a big, old stadium and the acoustics are usually pretty good, but it was really loud in here,” Rothgery said. “You can see it in (Williams’) eyes when the crowd gets going like that and stuff happens. She likes it when the other team’s fans don’t like her and all that. She feeds off that.”

Williams wasn’t the only one using the crowd to motivate her as Scheibelhut, who had 12 of her 21 points in overtime, could be seen at center court with the biggest smile on her face, even with her team down a basket as she raised her arms to the Panther faithful to get them into the game.

“Megan since day one has been the X-factor here at Elyria Catholic,” Rothgery said. “If Megan plays well, we’re in good shape.”

Scheibelhut apparently was not ready for her high school career to end as she willed the crowded into the game as even more time was added to the clock with the start of each overtime.

“It’s win-or-go-home in this tournament and I didn’t want to go home,” Scheibelhut said. “It’s my senior year and no senior wants to go home. I was just telling everyone, whenever they got down, ‘Let’s smile. Let’s get up. We still have time to win this one.’ And we did.”